Pyromania Lost
by avatarjk137
Summary: Pyro has been in the Brotherhood for two weeks now, and life is good. But after a mysterious attack on the XMansion, Pyro wakes up to find he doesn't enjoy burning things anymore! Can Pyro get his 'crazy' back? Rated T for violence and swearing. Has O
1. Chapter 1

**avatar: This is my 3rd fic! It's about Pyro, but the summary should have told you that! I have some O.C.s in this, and I'm trying to keep them from becoming Gary Lous. If people tell me they are too Gary Lou-ish, I'll kill the characters at the end of the fic! Disclaimer time!**

**Pyro: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolu- (burns the rest of the disclaimer and laughs maniacally) BWAAhahahahaha!**

**avatar: Pyro blows stuff up _real_ good. That's why this fic is about him.**

**Chapter 1**

**Good, Clean Exercise**

"This is lame. The Acolytes had all this high-tech training equipment."

"Shut up, Pyro. At least my dad's sending us money now and we can go to a gym we're actually members of," Wanda replied. It was true: since Pyro had joined, Magneto had been sending the Brotherhood enough money to be comfortable.

"Yeah, he joined the X-Men. What the crap's up with that, mate?" Pyro continued.

"He was burned out on operating outside the law. Happens to the best of them," Pietro chuckled. They walked into the gym, which was mostly empty except for the staff, a few muscular girls playing racquetball, and a few various young guys on the weight machines. They were all in regular clothing for the workout. Wanda walked over to the treadmill and began jogging. Blob went to the bench and began pressing the biggest set of weights he could find. The weight bar began to bend, but Fred wasn't even sweating. Toad tried the weight machines, and they began to lift him. Quicksilver zipped over to the free weights. He lifted small amounts, but he made up for it by lifting 5 times as many sets as the rest of the Brotherhood each time they came. Lance and St. John walked over to the weight machines, and began to compete. Lance wasn't surprised that Pyro, despite being a bit smaller than him, could lift just as much. The Brotherhood was tough, but in the two weeks since Pyro had joined after the Apocalypse thing, he had been one unexpected twist after another. He had stood up to Wanda (and lived to tell the tale), he had established friendly relations with the X-Men (through new members Gambit, Colossus, and Magneto), and he had proven to have a sensitive, intellectual side (that was the biggest shocker). Unsurprisingly, he had burned down the house next door because he 'didn't like the color', and had requested a lava lamp for his bedroom, 'with real lava'.

"Hey, hey, HEY!" The manager of the gym walked over to Blob, Toad, and Quicksilver. "You guys are mutants, aren't you? Go home! This gym is for humans only!"

Toad managed to untangle himself from a weight machine. "You can't do that, yo! We paid to join this gym, just like everyone else here!"

"Yeah, we're paying customers!" Avalanche yelled. The rest of the Brotherhood (who hadn't been showing their powers) had gathered to argue with the manager. Some of the other gym members had stopped to watch.

"Don't matter. My gym, my rules. You guys have to go."

"Yeah, muties go home!" a kid yelled. Pietro turned to look at him. He was small, maybe 14, with a shock of blond hair. He looked angry at the Brotherhood, but Pietro saw that when he turned to the manager, he looked even angrier. There was something else in his eyes, too; it was a familiar look, but Pietro couldn't put his finger on it.

"We ain't leavin'," Fred insisted. He hadn't even stopped lifting.

"Fine, then." The manager dialed a 3-digit number on his cell. "Hello, 911? There are some mutants at my gym who won't leave." The Brotherhood scowled, but didn't move. The manager gave his address, then hung up. "You guys should hurry up and leave. The new Mutant SWAT Team is on their way."

"Fine!" Pyro yelled. He picked up a 5-pound weight, and looked at it contemplatively. "If we can't use this place, nobody can!"

"Uh, dude?" Toad asked. "You aren't wearing your flamethrower."

"Don't need it." Pyro threw the weight at an empty machine. When the metal hit metal, sparks flew everywhere, and one caught on the carpet. Pyro waved his hand casually, and the flames rushed up the walls and across the ceiling. "I hope your insurance covers 'acts of Pyro', mate." He began to giggle, then laugh maniacally. The Brotherhood ran out the door (which, luckily, was unobstructed), and the humans in the gym followed. Pyro was still laughing. "C'mon, guys. Let's go find something else to destroy for a good reason."

* * *

The two figures got out of the taxi and looked up. The plaque on the gate was engraved. It read, 'Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters'. The one on the left snickered at the sign, causing his companion to look up, irritated. "What? It's funny 'cause we're 'gifted youngsters'." The setting sun played across his features, glinting off of his unnatural long, aqua-colored hair. 

"You're a little off, you know that?" His companion looked similar to him. They both looked to be of possibly Oriental descent, and both had long, straight hair down below their shoulders. However, while one's hair was bluish, the other's was striking emerald. They were also dressed differently: the green-haired guy wore leather gloves and jacket, while the blue-haired guy wore a black trench coat, and had bare hands. Both wore t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers.

"Yeah, whatever," blue-hair laughed.

"What do we do again?" green-hair asked, inspecting a small shrub.

"We wait around here 'til midnight. We don't draw attention to ourselves. Then, we attack."

**End of Chapter**

**Reviews make me feel alive! And keep in mind, people who aren't alive have a harder time finishing their fanfics.**


	2. Chapter 2

**avatar: yay! I hope I'm not late with Chapter 3 (a bit of writer's block), because I'm leaving you with a cliffhangar. In this chapter, uh, just read the title.**

**Pietro: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution or anything else he might have mentioned here (like rocket launchers). In the immortal words of Ricky Bobby, 'I wanna go fast!'**

**avatar: truer words have never come from his mouth.**

**Chapter 2**

**Assault on the X-Mansion**

Pyro laughed again as he walked through the door to the Brotherhood mansion, and dropped the rocket launcher. "That was the most fun I've had since I joined you guys!" After leaving the gym (and making sure they didn't actually kill anyone), they had decided to investigate a rumor about gun-smuggling down at the docks. They had found the rumor true, and beaten up the gangster responsible (Blob was bulletproof, so the smugglers didn't really have a chance). They had called the police, but had taken some of the guns themselves 'in case the world ends again'. The final weapon tally: 2 beanbag guns and 5 cans of pepper gas from the crate marked 'nonlethal', 2 assault rifles, 4 pistols, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and (at Toad's insistence), a grenade launcher. They had also made sure to grab plenty of ammo for each one.

"I need new clothes," Blob complained. Although no bullets had pierced his skin, his shirt had been effectively Swiss-cheesed. He climbed upstairs and into his room.

Toad looked at Scarlet Witch. "And how did you enjoy the fight, snookie-pookers?" Scarlet Witch glared at him, and he punched himself in the face to save her the trouble.

Pyro grabbed some iced tea from the fridge. "I got to light the rocket launchers on fire! Who says metal doesn't burn?"

Pietro finished zipping around, hiding the weapons in strategic places around the house, and looked at the clock. "WOW! Midnight already? You guys had better go to bed soon."

"Why?" Lance asked, as he grabbed some ice water and went upstairs to his bedroom. "What'll you be doing?"

"Not sleeping. Duh!" Pietro sat down in front of the television and began watching, flipping channels so fast the remote began to spark.

The two mystery men watched, as soon after sundown, the limousine pulled out of the driveway and through the gate. Inside, behind tinted windows, sat Erik Lensherr and Professor Charles Xavier in the main area. Logan drove, and Peter rode shotgun, looking absently out the window.

"Do you think its okay to leave the students alone?" Erik asked.

"Absolutely," Charles replied. "They won't miss the four of us gone for one night."

"Six of us. Don't forget, Jean took Scott to meet her parents this weekend."

"Erik, there's nothing to worry about. Ororo, Hank, and the senior students can hold out for one night against anything up to – and including – an attack by multiple sentinels."

The car drove off, not noticing the two strangers in the nearby tree. Xavier was too busy talking to Magneto about school policies to do a scan for nearby minds. The two hung out in the tree several hours, lit by a moon that was nearly full. Finally, it was time. "Okay, it's midnight," the green-haired guy said. "Can we attack now?"

His blue-haired companion snapped his eyes open. "Yes, Bio. We can attack now." He vaulted from a low branch onto the ground inside the mansion. Bio came down much more smoothly, the tree branch bending lower so that it was a shorter jump for him. The two quietly stalked towards the mansion, but as soon as they climbed the stairway to the front door, alarms began to sound. "Shit," said the blue-haired guy. "Bio, you head upwards, I'll go in the front door."

Bio nodded, and vines shot from his sleeve. He pulled himself up to a nearby tree branch, then to the roof of the X-Mansion. The blue-haired guy continued through the front door, and found Rogue, who was the first to respond. She hadn't bothered to put on her uniform, and was only wearing one glove. "Perfect," blue-hair said under his breath.

Rogue began advancing on him. "You're pretty stupid, coming in here alone. Are you here to join or something?"

"Actually, my name is Spectrum. I'm here to beat you up and rob you."

"Wrong thing to say, pal!" Rogue grabbed Spectrum's face, shocking him. Spectrum fell to the ground, as Rogue began looking at her hands impatiently. "Y'all don't have powers? That's stupid. You came in here alone, unarmed, and with no powers!" Spectrum groaned and got to his feet, and Rogue chuckled. "So… your power is that you don't lose consciousness easily?"

"Actually, my power is to copy other powers used nearby." Spectrum grabbed Rogue's bare hand, and she went limp. He let her fall, and ran swiftly into the next room. On the other side of the door, he found Magma, Iceman, and Berzerker. They were all in uniform, and, apparently, about to go find him. "I'm saving you guys the trouble." Spectrum simultaneously grabbed Amara and Bobby's faces, and they both fell, unconscious.

Berzerker began glowing with lightning. "Don't hurt my friends," he said.

Spectrum laughed, and held up his hands. The hand that touched Iceman was blue with ice, whereas the one that had kayoed Magma was on fire. "Are you sure you want to fight me alone?"

Ray hesitated, uncertain. "I-I-"

"You're not alone, Ray!" Beast and Cannonball had arrived through another door.

Spectrum cracked his element-infused knuckles, causing steam to rise from them. "Fine then, I'll take all three of you on."

Storm threw on her cape, and began to quickly put her boots on. She had been watering her plants in the attic greenhouse when the alarms had been tripped. Suddenly, Bio dropped thru the greenhouse window. "Nice plants. Too bad they're betraying you." He waved an arm, and vines burst from several of Storm's plants. They wrapped around her waist, wrists, and ankles. The mutant weather witch had no time to use her powers before she was completely entangled. A vine extended in front of her face. It ended in a rosebud. "Goodnight," Bio said calmly as the rose bloomed. Seconds later, he was heading down the stairs to the second floor.

Roberto turned a corner, and dashed in front of him. "Where do you think you're going, _senor_?"

"It's not where _I'm _going…" Bio shot several vines from his sleeve. The vines knocked Sunspot back, right through the window. "Have a nice trip." He turned around, and Jubilee was dashing out of her bedroom door. Bio quickly walked up to her, and a rosebud bloomed from his sleeve. "For you, my darling." Confused, Jubilee took the rosebud. Instantly, the rose bloomed, and a small cloud of fine spores shot from it. As Jubilee inhaled the spores, she fainted. "I never get tired of that," Bio laughed. He turned and walked toward the stairs to the first floor, but Kurt teleported in front of him.

"Don't leave. The party's just started," the fuzzy blue elf said. Bio turned, to find Gambit behind him. Gambit had his staff out and charged. Behind him, X23 ran out of her bedroom, and unsheathed her claws.

"Let's see how you do when you aren't ambushing people, _mon ami_," Gambit said angrily.

Cannonball shot forward, slamming into Spectrum. He was knocked back into a wall, which he cratered. He got up slowly, and swiped his arm, shooting ice darts at Sam. Ray zapped the darts in midair, melting them, but Spectrum lit on fire like Magma and ran forward. Beast ran between them, and began rapidly punching Spectrum. He launched Spectrum into the air with an uppercut, and Sam used his powers to slam Spectrum back into the ground. Spectrum began to laugh. "Thanks for the _boost_!" he grabbed Sam and piledriver-ed him. "Hey, furry guy! You're really strong!" Spectrum ran towards Berzerker again, this time moving at Beast's top speed, still on fire, and now giving off a cloud of steam. Shadowcat dropped down from the ceiling, and grabbed Spectrum, phasing both of them through Ray. Afterwards, she jumped off, and Ray hit Spectrum with electricity.

"Not so unstoppable now, are you?" Berzerker shouted. He turned to Kitty. "Thanks. We needed the help. This guy's unstoppable!"

Gambit swung his staff, and Bio jumped out of the way. The staff hit the ground, and exploded. Kurt ported in front of Bio, punched him, ported behind Bio, kicked him, ported to the side of Bio… and Bio punched him. Then Bio had to drop to his knees to avoid X23's claws. "Whoa! You've got weed-whackers coming out of your arms!" Using vines from both sleeves, he pulled himself up halfway to the ceiling, preventing Nightcrawler from kicking his feet out from under him. Then he swung on the vines and double-kicked Kurt in the chest. A charged card floated up to the vines, and blasted them loose. Bio released new vines at Gambit, grabbing him around the waist and throwing him down the hall, just missing the window. X23 jumped from behind him, so Bio turned around and threw out more vines. X23 growled as she tore through the vines and kicked Bio to the ground. He produced still more vines, and pulled X23's ankle, knocking her over. Kurt attacked again, and he blocked the punch with his vines. He knocked Kurt back and dodged another explosive card. Unluckily for Bio, X23 was right where he dodged. She stabbed forward with her claws, and as he fell limp on her, she came out of her berserker rage.

"Did I just stab him through the heart?"

**End of Chapter**

**Review and tell me what you think of the attack. Tell me what you think of the characters. Tell me what you got for halloween, just review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**avatar: Long chapter this week. Don't expect me to make all of them this long.**

**Magneto: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. He does own Spectrum and Bio. I'm not evil anymore! FEAR ME!**

**avatar: Mags, the good guys don't usually say 'fear me'. BTW, ego cream pie for anybody who knows what the chapter title originally was.**

**Chapter 3**

**Man Found Beaten, Robbed By Police**

"Ugghh!" X23 moaned. "Logan was just teaching me about defeating people without killing them, and look at what I just did!"

"Yeah, Logan's gonna be sooo mad…" Nightcrawler said, uncertain of what else he should be saying.

Suddenly, Bio straightened up a bit. "Don't you guys worry about me, I'm fine." He blew into X23's face, scattering fine spores. X23 immediately fell, unconscious, and Bio caught her and gently set her down on the ground.

"How are you still alive?" Nightcrawler asked incredulously. "You're bleeding pretty badly."

"That's not blood," Gambit said, "that's sap coming from his chest."

"Sap?"

"Yes," Bio said thru gritted teeth, "Sap. Like you." He grabbed Kurt with his vines, and smacked the blue X-man's skull against the wall, knocking him out. Suddenly, he lurched forward. Rahne had tackled him from behind in her wolf form, and sunken her front claws into the back of his shoulders. Bio lashed his vines behind him, grabbing Wolfsbane and slamming her to the floor. "Bad doggy." His vines held her down as one of them bloomed, spraying more of the sleep spores in Rahne's face. He then jumped back to avoid another downward slam from Remy's staff. The explosion from the staff further damaged the floor, causing a gaping hole in the hallway to the floor below. Bio shot his vines forward again, but an exploding card blew them to bits. "Whoa. Stabby girl must've taken more out of me than I thought," he mumbled, retracting his burnt vine stumps. Suddenly, Gambit charged through the smoke cloud, and swung his staff, catching Bio in the head. Bio fell to the ground, swearing; the sap on his chest wound was gumming up, but more sap was flowing from the wound on his head.

"Looks like I got you, veggie-head. _Se la vi_!"

"Oh, come on… THAT WASN'T EVEN FRENCH!" Bio staggered to his feet, and waved his arms. Gambit turned around, and noticed too late that he was standing at a window. A tree branch smashed through the glass, and quickly grabbed a stunned Remy. Bio grinned as he heard screams outside. "Just like _Poltergeist_…" He used fresh vines to lower himself into the hole in the floor.

* * *

"Doesn't this guy have enough powers already?!" Berzerker complained, blasting away with his lightning. Spectrum laughed as he dodged the bolt by shooting into the air. Combining Magma and Cannonball's powers, he dropped like a flaming meteor down towards Berzerker. Kitty quickly hugged Ray, causing Spectrum to fade through both of them. "Ahhh!" Berzerker cried in pain. "Kitty, I thought that can't hurt us when you phase us thru like that!" 

Kitty was wincing as she brushed embers off her uniform. "It doesn't work with heat…"

Beast grabbed the recovering Spectrum with one arm and began savagely punching him with the other. "STOP…HURTING…MY…STUDENTS!"

Spectrum's eyes glowed, and ice coated his body. "You ain't the boss of me!" He slammed Hank in the chin with his own super-strength, and followed up by freezing the blue, furry teacher's feet to the ground. Fire began to appear side-by-side with the ice, causing steam to pour from Spectrum's body. The steam flooded the room.

"I can't see anything!" Berzerker yelled, charging his electricity, but not firing it.

Spectrum snuck up behind him, and rapped him lightly on the head. Ray instantly fell to the ground, unconscious. "Whine, whine, whine," Spectrum gloated. "Do you ever stop complaining?"

"Ray? Mr. McCoy?" Shadowcat called through the sauna. "Are you okay?" Spectrum followed the sound of her voice, and shot a weak blast of fire in her direction. Kitty phased through it, but judging by her yelp, the heat still got her. He followed up with a freezing blast, and the sudden change in temperature shocked Kitty into unconsciousness.

"And then there was one," Spectrum narrated, turning to where he had left Beast.

"Sometimes, one is enough." Beast rammed Spectrum with his shoulder, knocking him across the room. Spectrum staggered to his feet. Due to Beast's enhanced senses, both of them could see each other in the warm steam.

Spectrum suddenly erupted into a coughing fit, and Beast took the opportunity to charge forward again. Using Sam's power, Spectrum rocketed away, over to where Kitty lay. She was half-phased through a wall she'd tried to escape through. He sunk his hand into her phased arm. "C'mon, I need your power, too." Suddenly, Spectrum cried out in agony. He stumbled back from Kitty and began to flash. He screamed until his breath was gone, and then collapsed to the floor. "That…was…weird…"

"I'm going to detain you and call the professor," Beast growled. He opened a door, letting the steam out. "The dampening handcuffs should be in here…"

He was very surprised to find Bio standing behind the door, wearing bandages that had previously been some of the X-Men's spare tablecloth. "You were expecting maybe Apocalypse?" He asked, noticing the shocked expression on Hank's face. Then he exhaled sleep spores, knocking out the older X-Man. Bio helped Spectrum to his feet. "I think you overdid it."

"You and me both," Spectrum observed, laughing weakly. Then he started coughing again. He looked at his clothes, which were burned halfway to ashes. "I loved this trench coat."

"Come on, let's get what we came for." Bio found the elevator, and they navigated through the secret basement of the mansion. Spectrum used Sam's powers again to force open the door to Cerebro. Then they tore open the console and began to take pieces here and there. "I'll finish taking this stuff. You go find Beast's lab," Bio instructed.

"When did you start giving orders?"

* * *

Pyro rolled out of bed, mumbling. He rubbed his eyes, and walked downstairs to the kitchen. He pulled open the refrigerator, and grabbed a pitcher labeled 'property of Pyro – drink at your own risk!' He grabbed a large plastic cup from the pantry, and poured a large glass of the liquid. It was vaguely orange, with something unidentifiable floating in it. He felt the weight of the pitcher. "Pietro's been tapping into my supply again, the little bitch." 

"What's in that stuff, anyway?" Toad said, as he hopped in, drinking a can of cola.

"Some Monster Khaos, some Sunkist, some peppercorns…" Pyro downed the cupful in three gulps. He stared at Toad. "It was YOU who stole some, wasn't it? WASN'T IT?"

"Yo… I-I'm sorry, St. John-"

"For the last, time call me Pyro!" Pyro pulled a lighter out of the freezer.

"Did you hide lighters all around the house?!" Toad stammered.

"Yes." Pyro blasted Toad with a wave of fire. Lance, who had just entered the room, slapped his hand to his forehead.

"Todd, you have got to stop pissing Pyro off… you cause him to do this every day, you're gonna end up dead!" After stopping, dropping, and rolling, Toad was fine. However, Pyro was acting odd; he was looking at his hands, a look of horror on his face. "What's wrong, Pyro? I mean, you light Toad on fire _literally_ every day…"

"I… I lit him on fire…"

"So?

I didn't… I DIDN'T ENJOY IT!!!"

**End of Chapter**

**Pyro? Not enjoying burning stuff? Something _must_ be wrong! Check back on thursday to find out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**avatar: this chapter has no fight scemes, only humor, story advancement, and a touch of angst. I hope you don't mind.**

**Wolverine: _I_ mind, bub!**

**avatar: shut up and do the disclaimer, Logan.**

**Wolverine: (grumbles)**

**avatar (Sith emporer voice): _DO IT!_**

**Wolverine: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution, thank god. He does own Spectrum and Bio.**

**Chapter 4**

**Aftermath**

Berzerker picked up the ringing phone. "Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, how may I help you?"

"Ray, get me on the phone with the professor or my dad," Wanda said impatiently.

"'Fraid they're gone for the night. I can put you on with Mr. Mccoy or Ms. Munroe..."

"Fine. Whatever. We've had something weird happen last night."

"Tell me about it. Did strange mutants attack you guys, too?"

"WHAT?! No!" Wanda heard a scuffle, and a faint cry of "Ray, why are you telling everybody that we were attacked!" After a minute, the phone was picked up again.

"Xavier Institute," Beast said. "Oh, hi, Wanda." He sighed. "Yeah, we were attacked. Your dad and Xavier should be back in about half an hour. Why don't you guys come over as well? I'm sure we could benefit from hearing what happened to each other."

* * *

"Pyro's problem is that he's _sane?_ Logan asked incredulously. "How in the nine hells is that a problem?" All the X-Men, New Mutants, and Brotherhood members were there, except for Hank and Xavier, who'd gone downstairs to check for more damage on the lower levels, and Jean and Scott, who were of course gone for the week.

Pyro didn't respond at first. He simply kept crying into the gloves of his uniform. "It's gone…" he moaned. "MY CRAZY'S GONE!"

"He's been like this ever since he realized he wasn't a pyromaniac anymore," Lance said. He leaned against the wall of the damaged mansion foyer. "I'm getting pretty worried."

"I'll never laugh maniacally again…"

"I dunno," Kitty said, "he still seems pretty crazy to me."

Xavier and Beast re-entered the room. "Several things have been stolen from the lower levels," Beast reported, "including 3 essential parts of Cerebro, and some pieces of the danger room. They also stole some items from my lab. They knew what they were doing before they attacked."

"I never would have guessed," Rogue said sarcastically. "They attacked when six of the most powerful people in the mansion were out of the house. If that isn't planning, I don't know what is."

"It is clear they know who we are," Xavier noted calmly. "The question is, who are they?"

"I know," Magneto said. All heads turned to look at him.

"I knew it!" Kurt yelled. "I knew you wouldn't turn good so quickly! You set this up!"

Wanda shot up, ready to destroy an army. "My father is a changed man. The whole Apocalypse thing scared him straight. He wouldn't do something like this!"

"I second that," Gambit agreed coolly. Colossus nodded his head.

Magneto stared at the carpet. "See? I kidnapped Piotr's family. If he stands up for me, you can be assured I've changed. Charles can read my mind if you want more proof." He looked up, a grim smile on his face. "I know those two because I considered them as potential Acolytes. They go by Spectrum and Bio. They didn't want to join me, and the only things I could hold for ransom against them were each other. They have very little else that they value. In addition, when I found them, they were entirely untrained in controlling their powers. I have no idea what's happened to them since."

Xavier stared at Erik. He didn't need mind reading to know when his former best friend was telling the whole truth. This was one of those rare times. "Erik, I believe you. However, you have met them. We need to know what they can do."

"Spectrum is like Rogue. He absorbs the power templates of others. The difference is, he absorbs powers when they're used near him, and especially at him. I know his powers are limited, but I'm not sure how. As for Bio, his mutation is plant-based. He can extend vines and flowers from his body, and he has all these poisons he produces. His body is made of plants to a large extent. They didn't join me, so I don't know all the details of their powers."

"Dad," Pietro interrupted impatiently, "do you think this is related to whatever happened to St. John?"

"Don't call me that…" Pyro muttered weakly.

"I don't know, Pietro, but I don't see why it would."

"I thought you wouldn't." Pietro produced a long, bluish hair inside a test tube from his pocket. "I found this on Pyro's windowsill. Not in the tube, of course."

Logan took it. He sniffed the hair, and looked up, surprised. "It's the same bub that attacked last night."

* * *

Logan walked into the Brotherhood house, where Toad and Blob were waiting eagerly for news. "Not only were those Spectrum and Bio guys here last night…" he paused and grinned. "So was Sabretooth."

"Here?" Toad asked, genuinely surprised. "Like, last night?"

"Yeah. You stooges know anything about that?" Blob and Toad shook their heads. "I didn't think so. He's been AWOL since we thought Apocalypse killed Magneto."

"I bet they're working with him, yo," Todd suggested.

"Maybe. At any rate, I'm going to find them," Pyro said. He had come back with them, and anger was now the predominant emotion on his tear-streaked face. "I need to find out what they did to me. I'm going to get my crazy back or die trying!"

"We're behind you all the way," Fred said helpfully. "You're our teammate now."

"So am I," Gambit added. "You and I, we're close friends, you know? And I bet Peter and Magneto will help out, too."

"You can count on me," Wolverine said. "I have some questions for Sabretooth, and I think X23 does, too."

_The X-Men were also wronged last night,_ Xavier reminded them from back at the Institute. _Besides your former Acolyte teammates, Pyro, I think Rogue, Kurt, and Kitty would like to have a rematch with those two._ A minute later, Xavier spoke again. _Yes, they most certainly would. Those two were quite powerful, so you could probably use all the help you could get._

Pyro smiled grimly, his first smile since he had lost his 'crazy'. "No argument there. Logan, can you follow the trail?"

"Of course," Logan replied. "Sabretooth and those two weirdos were all headed toward the city."

"Then that's where we're going."

**End of Chapter**

**To New York City! Incidentally, who do you think the big villain will be in this fic? Magneto? Mystique? Apocalypse? Mesmero? Spectrum himself? Review and post your guess!**


	5. Chapter 5

**avatarjk137: chapter 5 is here! I'm starting up another big action sequence in this chapter! YAY! I'm also introducing my fic's final OC, who is actually Yellowfur's idea.**

**Spectrum: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men evolution, or New York City. He does own me and Bio, unfortunately. Yellowfur owns the other OC you'll meet in this chapter. I'm going to go get something to eat. (walks off)**

**avatarjk137: this Act (yes, I arbitrarily decided to put acts in this fic) takes place in New York City. I'll also be making fun of Shadowcat being a valley girl. On with the fic!**

**Act II**

**Chapter 5**

**New York, New York**

"Wow," Kitty mumbled breathlessly. "It's been, like, years since I've been to New York City. The skyline is so weird without the twin towers."

"Yeah, but there's still tons of fun stuff here," Lance said.

"Awesome food, for example," Blob said, causing everybody to snicker except X23 and Pyro. X23 had a woefully malnourished sense of humor, and Pyro had lost what he now realized was his greatest source of joy.

"If you like tall buildings, the Empire State is still a great choice," Pietro said, looking around like an ADD-riddled kid in a candy store.

"Feh, it's not so great. I've been up there," Kurt scoffed dismissively.

"Really?" Toad asked. "When?"

"45 seconds ago."

"Hey," Logan called from just ahead, "the guys who attacked the Institute, their trail splits here."

Pyro's head snapped up. He looked quite stressed, but he also had a creepy kind of eagerness in his eyes. "What about Vic?"

"Sabretooth? His trail ended a little while back. He may have figured out he's being followed; his senses are as good as mine."

"Wait," X23 said, sniffing the air. "His trail goes up that tree, onto that low rooftop."

Logan checked the tree out. "She's right. We should split up. Me and the girl (his way of expressing affection for X23) will follow Sabretooth."

"I'll take the Brotherhood after that blue-haired guy," Pietro suggested. Logan pointed out the general direction he had gone with a shrug,

"Ah'll go find that green-haired creep," Rogue volunteered. Remy, Kurt, Kitty, and Piotr decided to go with her. "Those two won't have the element of surprise this time."

"I've got a hunch that I should go with Logan," Pyro spoke up.

X23 scowled. "You think you can keep up, hotshot?"

Pyro scowled right back. "Magneto trained us enough for a little running 'cross rooftops, shrimp!" With obvious effort, X23 restrained herself from impaling St. John.

"Fine. Whatever." The groups split up, and Wolverine and X23 easily scaled the tree. Surprisingly, Pyro backed up his words, and managed to follow the two up to the 2nd-story roof. Logan found a scrap of clothing that he attributed to Sabretooth's ever-present tattered coat, and they followed the scent up a fire escape. At the top, 7 stories above (Logan was actually worried at this point that Pyro was only slightly winded), they found him. Sabretooth had made himself a garbage-can fire, and in true Sabretooth fashion, was roasting a pigeon over it. As he took a bite of the seared pigeon, he turned to Logan and snickered.

"I was wondering if you had actually lost my scent!" Wolverine and his young clone each popped their claws, ready to pounce. Sabretooth then did something totally unexpected: he ran. He turned and sprinted to the next rooftop, and jumped the gap at a run. With a roar, Logan mimicked the jump, X23 and Pyro close behind.

* * *

"Any idea vhere this guy is?" Nightcrawler asked. They had walked a couple blocks after splitting up, but they only knew the general direction he had left in. Everybody just shrugged. 

"Who are you freaks looking for?" Everybody looked up. A young, blonde teenage boy was sitting on a streetlight above them, eating a soft pretzel.

"Who're you calling freaks, _mon ami_? Gambit asked, his red-and-black eyes narrowed.

Rogue glared at Remy, then looked back up to the kid. "We're looking for a green-haired guy, a mutant. Have y'all seen a man with long green hair walk by?"

"What's it to you?" the child asked, wadding up the wrapper for his finished pretzel, and throwing it down onto Rogue's head.

Everybody was fed up at this point. Kurt teleported up to the top of the pole, right in front of the surprised child. "Listen, kid, ve are looking for this guy because he attacked us. Now, are you going to tell us if you saw him, or aren't you?" Everybody was surprised when, a second later, Gambit caught Kurt, as he fell off the pole with a black eye. "That kid punches hard."

"You have no idea," the kid snarled. He jumped off the top of the pole, and fell straight toward Colossus. Mid-fall, he suddenly transformed into an elephant, and landed on Piotr, cracking the ground around him.

* * *

"We haven't even seen this Spectrum guy yet," Wanda complained. "How are we supposed to recognize him?" 

"I guess long, turquoise hair would stand out in a crowd." Pietro speculated, looking in each store window.

"He could have cut or re-dyed it by now! That wouldn't help!"

"I'll go look for him in this ice cream store," Fred volunteered.

"Blob, get away from there!" Lance admonished. "There's no way he would be in the ice cream store!"

"How would _you_ know?"

"Back to the problem," Wanda fumed. "How do we find him?"

"Yo, _I'm_ a great tracker," Todd bragged.

"Then why haven't you shown us which way to go?"

"Well, I'm not as good a tracker as Wolverine. I can't do it in a crowded, polluted city like this!"

"Then what good are you?!" Wanda screamed at him. Just then, Spectrum walked out of the ice cream store, wearing a new trench coat and holding a double-scoop cone of mint-chocolate chip ice cream. Everybody just stared at him, and he stared back.

Blob broke the silence first. "Ha! He WAS TOO in the ice cream store!"

"So, you guys came to find me?" Spectrum asked, cocking his head as he licked the cone. "I'm flattered, I really am."

"Yo, what did you do to Pyro? He's really freaking messed up!" Toad yelled.

"What are you guys going to do to me to get that information? Are you going to 'bust a cap in my ass', froggie?"

"We'll do whatever it takes!" Lance said, the ground already beginning to quake at his words.

"Oh, yeah?" Spectrum said, this time a little nervousness showing in his voice. "I don't think you can beat me. Chubby, hold this." He carefully tossed the ice cream cone to a slightly confused Fred. Then he took a step back from Avalanche, who looked to have become very pissed off and ready to rumble (no pun intended). _Come on,_ Spectrum thought to himself, _I need a power. Any power would be nice._ Suddenly, his body burst into flame. "Alright, I'm that Amara chick!" Suddenly the flames went out. "Kinda." He concentrated, and lava flowed out from his sleeves around his hands. Then the lava hardened, giving him a set of red-hot stone claws. "Now I'm ready to fight."

"I don't think so," Pietro burst out impatiently. "You can't touch this!" He dashed forward, kicking Spectrum, who was knocked back about 10 feet by Quicksilver's momentum. "Catch me if you can, copycat!" He rushed down the street, surprising the people who had gathered to watch.

Spectrum stood up calmly. "I most certainly _can _catch you." He zoomed after Pietro, moving at the same speed.

**End of Chapter**

**Join me next chapter to see what happens next in two fight scenes and a chase scene, all happening at the same time. Did I mention I like reviews?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Chaotic Dance**

Pietro was stunned that Spectrum was moving as fast as he was. To people watching on the street, they were just a pair of blurs rocketing down the street, except Spectrum's hot claws were giving off a trail of red light. "How are you matching my speed?"

"Are you stupid or something? I'm copying your powers."

"I'll show you stupid!" Quicksilver stopped dead and zoomed back the way they came. As Spectrum caught up again, Pietro tried to trip him. Spectrum caught Pietro's foot with his claw and knocked him in the side with the other. "AAAAAHH!" Pietro rolled forward at super-speed, coming to an abrupt groin-first stop on a fire hydrant.

Spectrum slid easily to a stop in front of the others. "Who else wants some?" Then his smile disappeared with a quick head count. He turned around in time to get a Toad tongue in the face.

"I'll take a piece, yo!" Toad called from on top of a 3-story building. Spectrum wiped his face, then lashed out with a hideously long tongue of his own. Toad caught the tongue in his end. "Yo, you think you could catch me with my own trick?" Now it was Spectrum's turn to smile. Fire shot from his mouth quickly down the long tongue, burning Todd's hand. "What the hell?" Toad let go to cradle his hand, and Spectrum pulled his flaming appendage back into his mouth. Then he shot out Toad's slime spit, only his was burning, bearing a closer resemblance to napalm. "HEY!" Toad leaped out of the way, landing on the sidewalk, and was immediately shoulder-tackled by Spectrum running at Quicksilver-speed.

"Stop messing with my friends!" Lance made the ground quake, knocking Spectrum over. The blue-haired mutant jumped to his feet and leaped out of the way before a motorcycle smashed the spot he had been standing in, courtesy of Blob. He then pressed his hands, still covered in hot rock, to the ground. A wave of vibration rippled out towards Avalanche, but stopped short of him. Lance looked around, confused, but then the ground in front of him erupted in flame. He was knocked back and peppered with cement, hitting a store-front window and cracking it. Spectrum then quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding one of Blob's bowling-ball-sized fists. Blob followed with a downward hammer-blow, and Spectrum dashed back to avoid it. He then ignited the claws on his hands, and shot back towards Fred.

"Stay away, lightweight!" Fred pulled a section of concrete off of the sidewalk, and used it as a shield. Spectrum yelled in frustration as his claw became trapped in the sidewalk block.

"What took you so long to get here, fatty?" He tried to pull loose with his collection of powers, but none of them popped him free.

Blob leaned the sidewalk chunk forward, beginning to crush Spectrum under it. "I was finishing your ice cream cone, creampuff!" At the last second, Spectrum pulled his regular hands free of the burning claws, and used Toad's powers to leap free of the falling chunk of concrete. He tried to leap back towards Blob, but his legs were stuck to the road. He noticed Wanda holding his feet down with her powers.

"You aren't going anywhere!" She rolled out of the way as Spectrum launched an underground fire attack at her. She then dodged a flaming tongue, and burning spit. A flowerpot hit Spectrum on the head.

"What the crap?" He turned around, and noticed Blob was chucking random objects at him. He couldn't get out of the way, and watched like a deer in headlights as Blob lobbed onto him a local celebrity, an anvil, a safe, and a Volkswagen, in that order (yes, they were all within arm's reach of Blob).

"Do you think we got him?" asked Pietro, who had limped over, clutching his nuts.

"How could we not?" Wanda asked. "Fred dropped a car on him." Suddenly, Spectrum exploded upwards out of the bug's trunk, his body heavily on fire. He bounced along the ground, shooting down the street at high speeds.

"I'm guessing Sam's, Amara's, and Pietro's powers," Lance said as he got up, rubbing his head. "I can't believe he's running away. What a loser!"

"Loser that beat the hell outta you," Toad snickered.

"Like you fared any better," Blob snorted.

Colossus emerged from under the elephant in his steel form. He stumbled to his feet, clutching his head in his hand. "That hurt. It hurt a lot."

"Watch out," Gambit warned everyone. "He's a shapeshifter!"

The elephant reformed in a split-second into the blond kid. "What was your first clue?" He then transformed into a cheetah, dashed toward Piotr, transformed into a rhinoceros mid-charge, slammed his horn into Colossus at cheetah speed, shapeshifted into a gorilla, slammed Piotr sideways into the street, shifted back into a cheetah, charged towards the metal Russian again, transformed into a lion, slashed him across the chest (drawing sparks from his metal skin), shifted to kangaroo, double-kicked Piotr into the air and jumped after him, shifted to a bat, got above Piotr, and elephant-dropped him again. This combo happened so fast, that everybody could only watch as Colossus was cratered into the ground. The blond boy emerged from the crater. "How did you guys like that?"

In a flash, Nightcrawler was behind him, holding his arms back. "You're going down, whoever you are! We so do not need to deal with you right now!" The kid transformed into a rat, easily sliding from Kurt's grip, and then into a wolf. He slashed Kurt across the torso, then turned and ran towards Shadowcat. She phased through the flying claw attack, so he charged towards Rogue instead, shifting into a bull mid-charge. Gambit threw a charged card, destroying a large chunk of the road in front of the shapeshifting boy. He stumbled in the pothole, and slid to a halt in front of Rogue. He leaped back up as a tiger, but she had already removed her glove and grabbed his face.

"How do y'all like that, jerk?" She threw his groaning form to the ground, and turned to the other X-Men. "Something's wrong with the memories I absorbed. I think they've been modified." Suddenly, a vine lashed around her, pinning her arms to her sides. "Uh-oh, it doesn't look like we're out of the woods yet!" The vine lifted and threw her into a nearby bus. Bio stepped from an alley, several vines lashing from his shirtsleeves.

"No, my friends, the woods have come to you."

**End of Chapter**


	7. Chapter 7

**avatar: Sorry there were no notes for last chap. I have no idea what happened. Anyhow, more fighting in this chapter. Yay for fighting! Bio and his friend continue to fight, and Sabretooth also fights with Wolvie and his clone. Disclaimer today will be done by Kurt.**

**Kurt: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. If he did, he vouldn't have ended it at four seasons, and Jean vould not be such a Mary Sue. Also, ve'd have met Cable. He's awesome.**

**Chapter 7**

**Turn For The Better**

"Do you really think you can beat all four of us, _mon ami_?" Gambit asked. "'Cause if you do, I'm just itchin' for some payback."

"You and me both," Kurt said, inspecting the wound on his chest. It hadn't slashed through much more than his uniform.

"Payback?" Bio laughed. "You guys can't fight your collective way out of a paper bag. I'm surprised you can dress yourself without help."

"Why did you like, attack us, and take our stuff?" Kitty asked angrily.

"That's for me to know and you guys to never find out."

At this point, Gambit attacked. He tossed several playing cards into the air, which came down in front, behind, and to each side of Bio. Then Nightcrawler teleported right in front of Bio and punched him in the face. "If you leave the circle," Kurt said, following up with a kick, "The cards will go off. You can't escape," he punched and kicked Bio more, "but I can."

Bio caught his next punch, and gritted his teeth. Wooden spikes popped through his jacket, from his shoulders, arms, back, and chest, causing Nightcrawler to back off a little. "I can always go up!" Bio threw his vines straight up, and they latched onto a flagpole, pulling him upwards. Nightcrawler teleported to the top, hanging by his tail, and stomped Bio's head as he rose. Bio fell back downwards, but kicked off from the wall of the building so he didn't land on a card. He rolled as he hit the pavement, but when he came up, Gambit's staff was waiting for his face.

"Now's mah chance!" Rogue transformed into a tiger, and charged toward Bio to back Remy up. But suddenly a flying blur tackled her. When the world stopped spinning, she looked up. The white tiger that had tackled her transformed back into the blond boy. "He's outnumbered enough already, don't you think?"

* * *

Pyro was really beginning to lose his breath. He didn't want to show it, but no amount of normal training and physical conditioning would allow him to keep up on a rooftop chase with Sabretooth, Wolverine, and X23, whose powers seemed to grant them unlimited stamina. He had let loose a spray of flame with his flamethrower, and was now shaping it into a serpentine dragon, which flew alongside and around them as they chased Sabretooth from rooftop to rooftop. His legs were burning, his lungs were screaming for air, and the dragon was beginning to flicker as so many things fought for his attention. However, Pyro wasn't about to give up: Sabretooth knew what had happened to Pyro's pyromania, and he was going to get it back. It defined his character, it shaped his decisions, and most of all, it made him happy. 

Suddenly, Sabretooth jumped down from the roof two stories onto a flagpole hanging off the side of a building, and used it as a springboard to vault over a street to the buildings on the other side. He stood on the rooftops, grinning across the street to his pursuers. "Are ya too chicken to come?"

"Ya gotta be kiddin' me, mate," Pyro moaned. "I'm surprised even he can do that!" Suddenly, X23 mimicked Sabretooth's acrobatic feat, springboarding over the street. Victor began to run, but X23 landed from her leap literally right on top of him, her foot-claws at the ready. Logan laughed at Sabretooth's obvious pain, and did the same springboard move to go join them, forgetting that Pyro was left behind, due to the fact that healing wasn't his superpower (and he was recently no longer certifiably insane). "No way am I getting over there!" Then he looked down the other side of the building. He noticed a fight going on below: His former Acolyte teammates and the X-Men versus two mutants he didn't recognize. He also noticed a fire escape leading down that direction. "But I can easily get down there!" He began hopping down the fire escapes one entire floor at a time, hoping the fight didn't end before he could get some revenge.

* * *

Sabretooth roared in pain and grabbed X23. With a strength and ferocity that was rarely found in the civilized, he tossed X23 across the rooftop, where she landed on an air conditioning unit (breaking it). He began to run in that direction, but was interrupted by Wolverine raking his adamantium claws across Victor's face. He grinned and bit down on Wolverine's arm, pummeling the X-Man with both hands. He then released his jaws in time to kick Wolverine in the jaw. Before Logan hit the ground, X23 was on him again. He dodged her claws and tried to counterattack with his own, somewhat shorter ones, but she was extremely fast and weaved around his attacks. She then raked her claws across his gut. She tried to follow up with a clawed kick, but he grabbed her leg and threw her into an incoming Wolverine. 

While they untangled their claws from each other's bodies, he grabbed the air conditioning unit he had already smashed with a small, angry teenage girl and threw it at them. Logan jumped up first and sliced up the incoming appliance. X23 jumped over him and claw-tackled Sabretooth. He pried her loose and punched her hard in the face, but Wolverine then clawed him across the back. He roared in frustration and pain, then grabbed both of them by their shirts and lifted them off of the ground. "You guys are so cute together," he said, a hideous leer on his bloody (but no longer wounded) face.

"What do you know about what happened to Pyro?" Wolverine asked, as X23 dug her claws into Sabretooth's ribcage.

"I know more than I'm going to tell you," Victor replied, his own blood dripping from his mouth. Then, with another roar, he threw them both off the building.

**End of Chapter**

**Next chapter will have stuff besides action, like character development and angst. But don't worry, there will be some action in there, too!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Avatar: This chapter ends the big fight scene that's been going on. Pyro comes through in a pinch, as you will see. This chapter also has an angst scene courtesy of Yellowfur. She's so good at that stylized angst stuff.**

**Bio: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. He only owns the storyline within, Spectrum, and myself. Yellowfur owns Hunter (finally, we can call him by name!). Hey avatar, why did you beat me senseless in this chapter?**

**Avatar: I didn't whomp you _that_ badly! **

**Chapter 8**

**Detainees**

Bio struggled back to his feet. Gambit's staff had connected squarely with his face, and it hurt. He looked up and saw Gambit charging his staff. "Are you ready for the _coup de grace_?" Remy asked. Then he swung his staff like a baseball bat. Bio used his vines to grab Nightcrawler, who was trying to get the drop on him. Then he used the furry blue mutant as a human shield for the charged staff attack.

"Owww," Kurt moaned.

Bio then punched Gambit in the face. "I'm ready for it. How about you?" Suddenly, he heard a faint roaring sound and felt warmth on the back of his neck. He turned around and saw a huge Oriental dragon made of fire rushing toward him. "What the f-" The dragon slammed into him, knocking him across the street into a parked SUV and lighting the wooden spikes growing from his body on fire. "OW! OW! What the hell!" He used his vines to pull the cap off of a fire hydrant, and then jumped into the geyser of water. He rolled out of the water, coughing and burnt.

"That's what you get for takin' my crazy, mate!" Pyro turned his attention to Rogue, who had just reverted to human form.

"What the… why did his power stop working?"

The blond kid walked toward her in human form. "I can only hold one animal's form for 20 seconds. I only_ need_ 20 seconds." He transformed back into a gorilla and threw Rogue into a nearby second-story window. He turned around and saw Pyro walking toward him. Coils of fire wound up and down the Aussie mutant's arms, and a long cape-like flame spread out behind him.

Pyro's face changed from anger to surprise. "You're that shrimp from the gym! Why'd you call us muties if you're one, too?"

"You jerks were ruining the gym for people who weren't obviously mutants!"

"What's your name, shrimp?"

"I'm Hunter. And don't call me shrimp!" Hunter transformed back into a cheetah and charged Pyro again. Pyro put a wall of fire between them, and Hunter changed into a bat and jumped it, before dropping back down on Pyro as a rhinoceros. Pyro blasted him with a pillar of flame, knocking him back into the still-pouring fire hydrant.

"Hunter's a stupid name."

* * *

"How are they doing?" Wolverine asked. After being thrown off of a building and landing headfirst on the concrete, only to find Sabretooth gone when he climbed back up, he was a little irritable. When he heard that Bio and Hunter had been defeated and were now in the basement's brig, he cheered up a little. 

"Well," Beast responded, "they're grouchy and they seem to be hiding something."

"Anything I couldn't have guessed?" X23 muttered. While Logan had landed on the alley's cement road, she had fared slightly better by landing in the dumpster. Both of them were still furious that Sabretooth had trounced both of them 2-on-1.

"She really is your clone, Logan. Anyway, Bio says that Spectrum is in charge of the whole operation. The interesting thing is, Hunter says Erik deserves all the credit. Brain scans show they both think they're telling the truth, and Erik volunteered for a brain scan that proves him innocent."

"That is interesting. What details are they giving?"

"Bio says Spectrum's building something or other, and he stole the idea off the Internet. I doubt that. Hunter hadn't even known the two for long, and says Magneto paid him good money to attack anybody who went snooping around for Bio and Spectrum. Neither of them are willing to give information on their past, beyond Bio telling us his name is Damon. I'm not sure if they're able to." Hank sighed.

"I'd bet my motorcycle that Mastermind is involved in this."

"I'm not taking _that_ bet, especially considering our other missing Acolyte is involved. I'd never peg them as working together, though."

"They aren't heading the project, and I'm not sure it's Spectrum either. Do you think it's Mags after all? He's submitting to those brain scans a bit too easily."

"Xavier is trusting him."

"Xavier would trust Apocalypse to catch him as he wheeled off the Golden Gate Bridge."

"Yeah, I can't deny that… hmmm?" A light on Beast's watch was blinking. "The detainees are requesting attention."

"I'll go down there. I'll shut those bubs up, but good."

* * *

Pyro sat in the oversized leather couch. He sat alone, though the couch was probably big enough to fit about seven people. Pyro twitched, as he hated sitting still for too long, though he didn't know what else to do. Those two mutants were detained, and the Brotherhood definitely didn't look like they were ready to leave yet. 

More twitching. Pyro hated sitting alone. He drummed his fingers quickly and rapidly along the armrest. When he thought about it, he didn't exactly want to sit with other people either.

More twitching. His anger grew as he thought about what he _wasn't _thinking about. The old Pyro, the _normal _Pyro would be thinking about how all the lovely furniture in the room looked delightfully flammable, not why there wasn't a television or bookcase in the room.

Twitch. Pyro picked at his cuticles. Questions raced through his head. Why was he so different? Where was original Pyro? Why was he at _this _place? WHY is that clock in the corner so LOUD?!

All this building up unanswered made Pyro angry. For some reason his mind gave him out of nowhere, he blamed Spectrum for all of this. **Spectrum **was the one who took his crazy. Pyro would love to murder Spectrum right about then.

Pyro was furious. And the worst part was, for the first time since he could remember, even the thing he once loved most wouldn't calm him down.

* * *

"I'm hungry," Hunter whined, rattling his wallet-chain across the bars. Logan grabbed the chain. "I'll get you guys some burgers."

"What?! Do you know what burgers are made out of?!"

"…Cow?"

"Exactly! I've been a bull! I'm not about to eat the animals I've been!"

"Well, they're also having tofu upstairs. I'll bring you guys some of that."

"TOFU!" Bio had been laying quietly on the cot, his eyes closed as if he was trying to sleep. Now he shot up, standing on the cot. He shot vines from his sleeves again, and pulled his body up to the bars so his face was inches from Wolverine's. "I'll have you know I'm pretty much a plant myself! How can you expect me to eat something made out of plants! What do you think those poor soybean plants felt when they were mowed down? I'm not touching anything not made from animals!" This sounded like the most ridiculous policy Logan had ever heard. He growled and pushed Bio off the bars.

"I guess you fools will have to go hungry, then."

"NO!" Hunter protested. "Get us some… fried chicken!"

"Yeah, I'll eat fried chicken."

Logan was seriously considering flooding the room with knockout gas, but then he had a better idea. "I'll get you guys some fried chicken – I know the best place in town – but tomorrow, you have to lead us to where Spectrum is."

"NO." Bio was not yelling, but he was very emphatic about his answer.

"Sure," Hunter responded at the exact same time.

Bio glared at him. "Give us a sec." They huddled in the far end of the cell. Logan caught "What are you thinking?", "We need to eat, tard!", and "Oh-Ohhh, right…" amongst quieter muttering. Bio walked slowly back to the bars. "You got yourself a deal, badger."

Wolverine punched him in the face. "I'll tell Xavier. He'll be glad you decided to help us out."

**End of Chapter**

**That's what Bio gets for calling Wolverine 'Badger' (thanks to 'Things Not To Do At Xavier's' by Amelia Glitter for that one). Next chapter: Our 'heroes'**** find where Spectrum is hiding. But who is really involved with this scheme? And are Pyro and friends expected?**


	9. Chapter 9

**avatar: the final act is here! Are you ready for a big fight scene, solving a mystery, and the 'resolution' of the story? Good, because hopefully it will all be done by Christmas break. Anybody who wants to know the big villain in the fic, it is revealed this chapter.**

**Blob: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. He does own this story, as well as Bio and Spectrum. Yellowfur owns Hunter. There, I said the disclaimer. Pay up!**

**avatar: (hands Blob a Philly cheesesteak, wrapped in bacon, and deep-fried)**

**Act III**

**Chapter 9**

**Ambush Party**

"THIS is where Spectrum is hiding out?!" Logan asked incredulously. "It's right across town from us! Why'd he lead us to New York City?!"

"Well," Bio said thoughtfully, "messing with you guys was part of Spectrum's plans from the very beginning. Can you loosen the collar?"

"No." Wolverine had Hunter and Bio wearing dog collars. He had attached leashes to the collars, and was walking them like dogs. Hunter had actually taken the form of a Great Dane to make the collar fit better, and was alternating between it and several other breeds of dog.

"Come on! I can understand it with Hunter, but not me!"

"Shut UP!" Pyro had been working himself into a rage all morning. After they had gotten Bio and Hunter an early lunch at Logan's favorite fried chicken restaurant, they had set out. Along with Wolverine and Pyro, Nightcrawler had elected to come along again, as well as Gambit and Colossus (who had only recently shaken off his headache), and Blob. The rest of the Brotherhood, except for Wanda, had been pretty badly messed up. Wanda had a therapist's appointment, but was going to arrive later if they needed backup. Kitty had stayed back to take care of Lance, and Rogue was coming down with the flu, which she had managed to catch from something in New York City. She had also retained Hunter's powers, and was shapeshifting unpredictably due to her fever.

Hunter shifted back into human form. "You guys should be quiet, Spectrum's no doubt heard you by now." Bio knocked on the door several times in a specific pattern. The pattern caused a small number pad to slide out from under the knob. Bio typed in a bunch of numbers, followed by the pound symbol. The doors swung open.

"Welcome to our humble abode," Bio said.

"Vhere are your family?" Nightcrawler asked as they walked in. It appeared to be a large, abandoned old house, but a detailed examination revealed otherwise: there was dust on the furniture, but not the floor. An additional hint was the security camera hidden behind a fake cobweb in the corner.

Bio stopped short. "I don't know," he said after a pause.

"You don't know… or you can't remember?" Colossus questioned.

"Er…" Suddenly, the floor panel that Bio had walked to dropped out suddenly. Bio disappeared from sight. Logan held onto the leash with all his might, but after a second, something sliced it clean through. Hunter had transformed into a cougar and slashed both leashes. He leapt into the hole after Bio.

"It's a trap!" Gambit pulled out a card and began to charge it, but the panel under his feet opened. Gambit quickly jumped out of the way, and tossed the card down the pit. A door behind him burst open, and Sabretooth was behind it.

"What've you been up to, Remy?" Sabretooth tackled the surprised former Acolyte, knocking them both into the now-smoking hole.

Pyro saw that he was standing on another floor panel, so he jumped back, landing on the dark stone floor section in front of the fireplace. "HA! I won't get tricked like that, mate!" The fireplace promptly rotated around, hiding a shocked Pyro behind the wall.

"Pyro!" Blob slammed his fist onto the fireplace. His hand went straight through, punching a huge hole in the wall. He grabbed John, and dragged him through the large new hole.

"Ah! Thanks, Fred, I thought I was a goner!" Pyro responded breathlessly. Suddenly, Blob fell through the floor. Pyro barely managed to roll away, and noticed Blob had been standing on the floor panel he had jumped away from. "I didn't think it was big enough to fit him…"

"Enjoying my fun house?" A voice asked above them. The remaining four people in the room – Pyro, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus – looked up. Spectrum stood on a balcony at the second-floor level. The stairs to the balcony had visibly been removed by force.

"Fun? You call this fun?" Kurt asked incredulously.

"You kidding? Watching this is hilarious!"

"Get down here and I'll show _you_ hilarious, bub!" Logan threatened.

"I'll help him climb down!" Nightcrawler teleported up to Spectrum's position, and kicked him. Spectrum was knocked back against the wood railing of the balcony.

"That was… kind of painful." He looked at Kurt, but he had already teleported. Spectrum sighed and shoved his head sharply backward. It connected with Kurt's nose. The blue mutant had 'ported behind Spectrum to continue hitting him. "You're predictable, Nightcrawler." He looked at the other X-Men (and Brotherhood member). Colossus had caught Kurt, and was now glaring up at Spectrum. Logan was digging his claws into the walls, scaling them to get up to the balcony. Pyro was standing still, his head bowed.

"You…" Pyro looked up, and Spectrum was shocked. He had never seen the insane Aussie so angry. "You took my crazy! I'll kill you!" He conjured up a horned skull made out of flames, and launched it at the blue-haired mutant. Logan, Kurt, and Piotr watched in shock as the flaming visage slammed right into Spectrum, and exploded.

* * *

"Where am I?" Gambit asked. The only light came from the card he had charged. He saw a pair of yellow irises with slitlike pupils shining in the darkness. "Sabretooth? Nice contacts." 

"I'm not Sabretooth, Cajun." The lights flickered on, revealing everybody's favorite blue-skinned, red-haired, terrorist, psychotic bitch.

"MYSTIQUE!" I should have known you were behind this!"

"Yes… but not alone." Gambit looked around, and realized he was entirely surrounded. Sabretooth stood behind him. Hunter and Bio stood on either side of him. Mystique stood directly in front of him. Mastermind was also there, but he was in a corner, leaning against some machinery.

_At least I won't have to fight monkey-face,_ Gambit thought with a smirk. "Hey hey, why are y'all so jumpy? I'm a former Acolyte. I can play for the bad boys." He noticed Blob in a corner, bound and gagged. "We could play a game while whatever you have planned happens upstairs."

"A game?" Mastermind asked skeptically.

"Sure. We could play truth or dare, or pin the tail on the Blob-" Blob tried to scream something, but his voice was muffled by the gag. "-OR, we could play…" He paused dramatically as he took out his deck, shuffling it as he charged it, "…_fifty-two pickup._" He scattered his entire deck around him in a circle.

Mystique glared at him. "I thought Pyro was the lunatic around here."

**End of Chapter**

**Fun fact: 52-Pickup was Gambit's Xtreme attack in X-Men: Legends. **

**Another fun fact: Yellowfur and I had thought up Hunter, Bio, and Spectrum years ago. For this fic, we changed Spectrum's powers (originally, he was a telekinetic with some other stuff), and Hunter's name (originally Buzz, and we couldn't think of anything better.**

**Next chapter, the fights continue! Yay for fighting!**


	10. Chapter 10

**avatar: This isn't really my best chapter. I'm not sure if I could've done better. But the final fight will continue next chapter. Anyway, here's Professor X with the disclaimer.**

**Xavier: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. He owns Bio, Spectrum, and this story. Yellowfur owns Hunter. I wish Mystique would stop trying to destroy us.**

**avatar: she really would like your head on her mantle.**

**Chapter 10**

**Pandemonium**

"Vow!" Kurt exclaimed. "I think you did it!" The entire balcony was aflame, and Spectrum was nowhere in sight.

"I'm not sure," Logan said gruffly from the spot on the wall he had climbed to. "To be honest, I hope not. I haven't had a chance to fight him."

"Awww, how sweet. No worries, I'm A-ok!" A wave of flame from the balcony rocketed into Logan, knocking him loose from the wall. Spectrum jumped from the balcony, and landed in front of Nightcrawler and Colossus. Absorbing Nightcrawler's powers had changed his appearance. Red fur covered his body, contrasting sharply with his still bluish hair. His ears had become pointed, and a tail extended from his pants. He still had the normal amount of fingers, though. "What a great look!" he exclaimed.

Pyro launched a huge ball of flame at him with an angry yell: "I hate you!" Spectrum held out his arms, and gestured toward Colossus. The fireball changed course and slammed Piotr. Piotr jumped through the fireball and uppercut Spectrum, knocking him through the air. Pyro blasted him again, and hit his target this time. Nightcrawler teleported into the air, and kicked Spectrum, knocking him downward. He ported below Spectrum, and kicked him back into the air. He ported again, and punched the power-copying mutant in the gut, sending him downward once more. Finally, Spectrum landed… on Wolverine's outstretched claws.

"I think we've all had enough of you, bub." He threw the impaled mutant to the floor. Everybody gathered around.

Spectrum twitched, and his wounds began to rapidly heal. He got up on his knees, and raised a hand into the air. 3 bone claws extended from the hand. Spectrum staggered to his feet, grinning. "Too…bad…" his entire body, including the claws, turned to steel. "…'cause I'm just getting started!" He slashed at Kurt, who teleported away. Spectrum teleported, too, and managed to land a kick to Kurt's head, knocking him down. He teleported again, and appeared on the ceiling. "I always wanted to try this!" He cut the chain holding up a medium-sized chandelier, which dropped toward Logan, and teleported over to Pyro.

"No more tricks, mate!" Pyro blasted Spectrum, and Colossus grabbed the falling chandelier and tossed it at Spectrum. Spectrum grabbed the chandelier, spun and used it as a shield against another column of fire. He then turned again and thrust the chandelier forward, catching Wolverine's claws in it. He spun the chandelier like a wheel, and flipped a snarling Logan onto his back. Then he flipped over the chandelier, deflected a blast of flame into Colossus, and stabbed Wolverine in the gut.

"But I like the tricks!" He laughed. Then he stopped. "Uh-oh, the flames don't work on steel boy." Before he could react, a large steel fist connected with his skull, launching him into the air. His claws were torn free from Wolverine, who hopped to his feet.

"Thanks, Colossus. Ready for the Fastball Special?"

"Of course." Colossus picked up Wolverine and threw him with all his strength. Wolverine connected with Spectrum adamantium claws-first, piercing his steel skin. The force of the throw rammed both of them into a wall. Wolverine pulled his claws out and began slashing Spectrum across the face.

"Tell me when you've had enough, bub. Just say uncle and it'll all be over!"

"I'm not the giving up kind of guy." Spectrum slashed Wolverine, kicked him back, teleported behind him, and stabbed him again.

Wolverine snarled in pain. "I'm getting really tired of BEING CUT OPEN WITH MY OWN CLAWS!" He stabbed backwards, slashing through the steel skin of both Spectrum's arms. Spectrum staggered back, and suddenly a huge explosion of multicolored flames erupted from him. He turned to face Pyro, who had conjured multiple human shapes from the fire. The fiery shapes all ran forward, exploding when they touched Spectrum. The power-swollen villain was blasted backwards, into, then through a wall.

"That really hurt," Spectrum complained, rubbing his head as he stepped back through the large hole in the wall. "Can't you guys just accept that I'm pretty much indestructible and surrender already?"

"'Fraid not, bub. We're X-men."

"Except for me. I just really need to kill you!" Pyro made a giant sword-shaped flame and held it above his head. Suddenly, the floor exploded.

"What the hells?" Logan asked, as the ground around him erupted, and began to collapse.

A staff extended up from one of the preexisting panels removed from the floor, and Gambit shimmied up the pole. "Sorry about that, _mon ami_, but I had a problem downstairs." He hopped off the staff, onto the mildly more stable floor, which was now burning slightly and more cratered than the dark side of the moon. He pulled up his staff, but Mystique was on the other end.

"Surprise, surprise." She kicked Gambit hard in the chest, then bolted for the door. A wall of flame blocked her path.

"No one leaves until I've got my crazy back, and maybe kill somebody!" Pyro screamed. "I need my crazy!"

"You still seem pretty crazy to me," Bio said as he pulled himself up through the floor with his vines.

"I think he means the pyromaniac part of him," Kurt said, staggering to his feet. "I'm bleeding pretty badly over here, so I'm going to take a nap, okay?" He promptly collapsed again.

Hunter flew up thru the floor as a bat, and landed on the ground in human form. "Nice trick, Gambit, but it didn't work too well. You only knocked out that monkey-face hypnotist, and you're out of aces, literally and figuratively." He paused as Sabretooth exploded headfirst through the floor, creating yet another hole. "Oh, and you freed Blob."

"I'll be upstairs as soon as I can find an elevator!" Fred called from below.

"I'll take the frigid terrorist," Gambit said. He swung at Mystique with his staff, but she jumped over him and kicked him through the door. She jumped after him into the other room with a karate yell.

"You know who I want to fight," Wolverine said. He jumped forward and tackled Sabretooth (who had just gotten up), knocking them both into the basement.

"Made it," Blob gasped. "Let me take… on The Animal over there."

"Bring it on, chubbo!" Hunter transformed into a jaguar and charged Blob, almost knocking him back down the stairs he had just climbed.

"Why are we picking opponents?" Colossus asked, as he threw a punch at Spectrum. Spectrum caught the fist, and kicked Colossus away.

"I have no idea, tin man," Bio chuckled. He grabbed Colossus's arm with his vines, and swung him around the heavily damaged room. Colossus hit a pile of burnt rubble that used to be a balcony.

"Looks like you're in some deep trouble," Spectrum said to Pyro. "You can't beat both of us, whether Tin Man gets up or not."

"I can try," Pyro said determinedly.

"Nice look for you Spectrum," Bio said. "The tail and pointy ears are a nice touch."

"Why thanks, cuz. How about a workout on Mr. Formerly Crazy here?"

"Sounds good."

**End Of Chapter**

**Next chapter: More beating the shit out of people! 'Nuff said.**


	11. Chapter 11

**avatar: Hey, all you people. This is the penultimate chapter (second to last, for the rest of you), so Chapter 12 will end the fic. I'm visiting family this vacation, so unless I can finish Chapter 12 by the night of the 26th, you'll have to wait until perhaps the 7th of January for it. So cheer me on! Mystique, do the disclaimer.**

**Mystique: (kicks avatar in the nuts) avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. He owns this story, as well as Bio and Spectrum. Yellowfur owns Hunter. (Grins evilly) I kick some major ass this chapter. That's what Gambit gets for joining Xavier.**

**avatar: must...stop...writing...how...William...Shatner...talks! Yay for free vasectomies! (Mystique holds out an open hand) Crap. (pays Mystique 1,000 Simoleans)**

**Chapter 11**

**Breakthrough**

"Get off me! Urgh! Bad kitty!" Blob threw Hunter down the stairway, and slid down on his butt after the jaguar. Hunter had barely any time to get up before Blob smashed feet-first into him, pinning him into a wall. "You probably can't even breath pinned up like that, can you, creampuff?" Blob asked. Hunter transformed into a mouse, hopped clear, and turned into a gorilla. He punched Fred hard in the face and chest a few times, transformed into a polar bear, and slashed the fat mutant's cheek, drawing some blood and leaving claw marks. Blob roared and punched him away. "Give it up, furry!"

"You think you're so strong?" Hunter asked, before transforming back into a lion and clawing at Blob again. He almost pushed Blob down the next flight of stairs, but then Blob just stopped giving ground.

"It's no good, creampuff. I'm IMMOVABLE!" He backhanded Hunter, knocking him all the way back to the top of the first flight of stairs.

Hunter became human again. "Immovable, huh? Let's put your powers to the test!" He became a rhinoceros, snorted, and charged down the stairs, building up large amounts of momentum as he barreled down toward Fred. He slammed his horn deep into Blob's gut, and kept pushing. Blob coughed up blood as his boots slowly slid back to the edge of the lower stairway. Painfully slowly, the heels of the boots began to slide off. Suddenly, Blob screamed, and hefted the young mutant's large rhino form onto his meaty shoulders.

"If I get moved down these stairs," he moaned, "yer going down them a lot harder! BLOB STYLE SUPLEX!" He dropped Hunter behind him, and fell back. The effect of this 'attack' was that Blob's extremely large and heavy form sledded down the stairs, and Hunter was the toboggan. They cracked the stairs on the way down, and kept going at the bottom, until finally crashing to a halt in a shelf full of firewood. Blob crawled out of the pile of firewood and shelf. "That was stupid and painful, but I'm pretty sure I won."

Hunter burst out of the lumber as a grizzly bear, and became human again. He was battered and bruised, and a stick was jammed into his arm. "You think you won, chubby?" He roared. Blob just looked at him like a deer in headlights. "Well, you're right. I give." With that, Hunter passed out on the hard basement floor.

* * *

"Well, this is the place." Wanda looked up at the large, apparently abandoned house looming in front of her. She knew she had found the right place from the yells and snarls coming from inside, as well as the smell of smoke that told her, 'Pyro is in there, using his powers. Tread with care.' "Should I walk right in?" She asked, apparently to nobody.

A voice crackled to life in a small radio receiver in her ear. "Not yet," Storm's voice responded. "I'm having trouble getting a signal in there. The only headset I've successfully contacted so far is Kurt's, and he's not responding. Wait outside, and then unless I tell you otherwise in 3 minutes, go inside, ready to use your powers."

"Fair enough."

* * *

"Give me my crazy back!" Pyro sent a gout of flame toward Bio, but Spectrum jumped into the fire's path, taking the blow without much visible damage.

"Bio. I'll block Pyro's flames, because they won't hurt me much with Tin Man's powers. You go rattle his armor."

"Righto." Bio, using all of his vines, reached into the pile of rubble, pulled out Colossus just as he began to get up on his own, threw him across the room, grabbed him again when he landed, and whipped him thru the floor. Pyro kept launching blasts of fire, but Spectrum blocked every one of them with his own body. Pyro launched two blasts, one to each side of Spectrum, and made them curve toward Bio. Spectrum teleported in the way of one of the other blasts, and gestured toward Pyro, sending the other flare back at its master, Pyro wildly gestured, and the blast circled around him, and blasted the floor below Spectrum, who teleported again before it collapsed.

Pyro stopped launching fire. "You've already forgotten, mate?"

"Forgotten?" Spectrum frowned. "Forgotten what?" Pyro pointed up, and Spectrum stared at the massive sword made of fire that the former Acolyte had conjured earlier in the fight. "I thought that faded away when you stopped pouring fire into it from your flamethrowers."

"I'm still pouring fire into it! Just not from my backpack." Pyro waved his arms. The various fires around the room were slowly being absorbed into the sword, which was now about 15 feet long. The sword slowly swung in the air until the tip pointed at Bio, who was busying himself with toying with Colossus.

"SHIT!" Spectrum screamed. "I can't stop a flame that big! Bio, watch out!"

Bio looked up to see the sword start to drop toward him. "What the crap?!" He jumped away, but the sword exploded on impact, lighting him on fire and punching the biggest hole yet in the floor.

Spectum caught Bio, and looked at Pyro. "You are going down, asshole." Colossus took that opportunity to climb back up to the first floor of the house, but at that moment, the entire floor collapsed, dropping them down to the basement.

* * *

"Well, Mystique, do you really think you can beat me?" Gambit held out his staff, keeping the dangerous red-haired mutant away from him as he backed her into the disused kitchen.

"Let me think. You're injured, I'm really not, you're out of playing cards, I hold three separate black belts, and I could probably beat you without two of those circumstances. I don't think I can kill you now." She grabbed a broom, and used it to knock his staff away from her body, allowing her to kick him in the gut. He staggered back, into a cabinet of fine china, which he managed not to knock over. "I know I can." She lunged forward with the broom. Gambit charged his staff as he blocked with it, allowing him to snap through her broom easily on the counterstrike. He followed up with a feint that looked high, but swept her feet out from under her.

"Is that a fact, _cheri_?" He asked, holding his charged staff at her throat. She kicked his shin, and jumped from her position on her back onto the counter, where she stomped his forehead.

"You know your stupid-ass mind games won't work on me like they do with my step-daughter." She jumped off the counter and kicked at him again, but he weaved out of the way and caught her in the back with his charged staff. The concussive blast knocked her across the room. Gambit wiped his blood off his face and held his staff out.

"If I did the world a favor and killed you, Mystique, just give a shout."

"Gambit? Did you beat Mystique?" Blob appeared behind him, looking dirty and bruised. Gambit swung his staff around, and pointed it at Blob.

"Stay back. I have no way of telling if you're really Fred."

"WATCH OUT!" Blob pointed behind Gambit. He swung his staff around again, but didn't see Mystique. This was partially due to the lack of a Mystique to see, and partially due to the fat meaty hand around his neck, slowly changing back to a strong, feminine, blue one. "After all of that," Mystique laughed, "You fell for the oldest trick in the book." She let go of Remy as he slipped into unconsciousness, then reached into the silverware drawer for a knife. The drawer was empty. _It's a kitchen, for God's sake;_ she thought angrily, _how hard can it be to find a decent murder weapon?_ She was about to search another drawer, but she stopped as the whole house shook and a loud roar echoed through the room. _I should never have planned a fight with Pyro indoors. The whole house could collapse any minute. _She looked at the unconscious Gambit. _Hopefully nobody will find him before the place falls down, because I need to grab my things._ She dashed out of the room.

* * *

"Huraughh!" Sabretooth lifted a coffee table and swung it at Wolverine. The smaller mutant rolled under the table, and came up to dig his claws into Sabretooth with a snarl. Wolverine then used the claws in Sabretooth's chest to flip his legs up and kick off Sabretooth's jaw, pulling himself free before his eternal opponent could grab him. Victor roared and threw the table at Wolverine like a discus. Logan jumped onto the table and rode it across the room, where he had noticed a fire extinguisher. Sabretooth jumped him, but Wolverine sprayed his face with the foam, and then slammed his nose with the canister. He took advantage of Victor's surprise and temporary blindness by slashing Sabretooth across the face, chest, stomach, and arms. He then slammed the canister into Sabretooth again. By pure luck, the way Sabretooth had charged forward caused him to be hit in the adam's apple, and Sabretooth fell to the ground, coughing. Wolverine kicked him in the face, and held his claws to Sabretooth's throat.

"Talk, Vic! What's Mystique planning, and why in the nine hells did she steal Pyro's craziness?!"

Sabretooth stopped coughing and looked at Wolverine with a grin. "I don't really know. She doesn't tell me that sort of shit. I think she plans to transfer it into a world leader capable of launching nukes, or something like that. She's hot when she's murderous." Wolverine shuddered involuntarily. "Anyway, she invited me to help. I was promised ten thousand dollars, and one or two chances at your head on a pike. I didn't even have to consider the offer." He tried to kick Wolverine off of him, but the brief struggle only resulted in him being pinned facedown. "Logan?"

"What is it?"

"The sky is falling."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He heard a rumbling, followed by crashes as chunks of concrete rained down around them. "I really don't need this." A larger chunk of concrete, this one sporting a Colossus, dropped on both of them, knocking all three of them out. If Logan, Remy, or Piotr had still been conscious, they would've heard Ororo's voice in their earpiece, saying to them to get out of there. "I hope you guys are hearing me," her voice echoed, "because in about a minute, unless I get a response, I'm telling Wanda to bring the whole house down."

**End of Chapter**

**I figured the last chapter needs a cliffhanger into it. Next chap: Pyro is in deep trouble. How will this fic end?!**


	12. Chapter 12

**avatar: Final chapter! YAY! Happy new year everybody! Not much to say until I'm done, so enjoy.**

**Hunter: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. He does own Spectrum, Bio, and this story. Yellowfur owns me.**

**Chapter 12**

**Double Breakthrough**

"Well, Pyro," Spectrum said, "It's just you and me now. Bio's out cold, but I stopped him from burning to a crisp. Tin Man, Wolverine, and Sabre are out cold. I have your powers, plus those of Nightcrawler, Tin Man, and Wolverine. Do you really think you can win? Especially since I'm fireproof with this steel skin?"

"Nothin's fireproof, mate. I just need the flames to get hotter." Pyro flung his arms out and clenched his fists. The various fires around the room shrank and turned blue. Pyro brought his hands together in a clap, and the flames encircled him, rings of blue fire around his red-orange outfit. "You know, I used to enjoy doing stuff like this," Pyro muttered.

"You want the concentrated pyromania that I yanked from your brain?" Spectrum gestured behind him, to a machine that looked like a large universal remote with an extra battery slot and an electrode for attaching to bare skin. "Mystique gave me that to mine your noggin. No idea where she got it, but I think the pyromania's still in it. If you can beat me, as you say, it's all yours."

"Consider yourself beaten." Pyro lifted the rings over his head. They flattened out into discs, and began to fly toward Spectrum, roaring and crackling with heat. Spectrum jumped out of the way of one, rolled away from another, teleported away from the last one, and screamed in pain as the first flaming wheel doubled back and spun into his back. He was knocked forward, and into Pyro, who had a ball of blue flames between his hands. Pyro smacked the orb into Spectrum's face, and kicked him back as he screamed and clutched his smoking face. "Had enough?"

"Nope! Something just occurred to me about your power." Spectrum lifted his hands in the air, then brought them down. All the fires in the room instantly went out. Before Pyro could conjure more, Spectrum ported behind him, and used his steel 'bone' claws to slice the feed tubes off Pyro's flamethrower. He yanked the device from Pyro's back and tossed it across the room, and followed up by grabbing Pyro's leg and throwing him across the basement. Now he was not the dangerous, unstoppable Pyro, but the powerless St. John Allerdyce. "Now do you think you can beat me?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Pyro was wildly striking an iron paperweight against the concrete floor, trying to create a spark.

"Idiot." Spectrum grabbed a table, threw it into the air, teleported above the table, and rode it into Pyro's face. Pyro was launched across the room, and Spectrum was waiting at the other end. The power-absorbing mutant sliced Pyro's chest with his claws, then kicked him in the gut, knocking him away again. "Have _you_ had enough?"

"Sorry, but I'm a sucker for punishment." Pyro noticed he was right next to the weird mind-sucking device, and pulled out a glass cylinder from the 'extra battery slot'. Something red and luminous was floating around the cylinder, which happened to have a syringe tip. "I hope to God this is my crazy and not the power source."

"Are you about to do what I think you're ab-" Pyro, instead of listening, jammed the syringe into his temple and injected, likely killing a few dozen brain cells in the process. A dazed smile crossed his face. "Yeah, you did it," Spectrum commented. "Listen, I'm just going to kill you now, since there's no point in you fighting back anymore. At least you died happy… I guess… I'll ask Mystique if I should have you cremated, or if that would be too nice."

Pyro suddenly snapped out of his daze. "Cremated… yeah! 'Cause everything burns! EVERYTHING!" He shot his arms out, and a pillar of flame appeared on each side of him. "I like burning stuff. Do you like burnin' stuff?"

Spectrum's eyes were wide. "You…y-you can't _create_ fire! That isn't part of your powers!"

"It is now, I guess!" Pyro raised his hand, and a small, candle-sized flame appeared between his finger and thumb. He raised the flame to his face. "Always wanted to do THIS, mate." He blew into the flame, and a cone of blue flame erupted from his hand, completely washing over Spectrum. When Pyro paused for breath, Spectrum was on the floor, and apparently didn't have Colossus, Wolverine, or Nightcrawlers' powers anymore, because he looked like a normal human, if one who was burned pretty badly. "That ROCKED! LOOK!" Pyro shouted to nobody in particular, "There's a friggin' scorched outline of him on the far wall! Have ya ever seen something so beautiful?! The house began to rumble, and more floors began to fall apart. "What the… shit!" He ran over to Wolverine, and slapped him. Logan was instantly awake, and had his claws at Pyro's throat. "Hey, mate, the house is collapsing. What should we do?"

* * *

"Sorry about dropping the entire house on you guys, but Storm couldn't reach any of you. She concluded the battle was lost and thought I should make sure they go down with you." They were in the X-Van, en route back to the Institute. Currently, they were bandaging Kurt and Pyro (Blob was already bandaged). Wolverine was pulling plaster out of his skin. He had stayed inside the longest to find Gambit, and he had the most chunks of old house in him as a result. Gambit, Kurt, and Hunter, who Blob had brought along, were still unconscious. They had to leave Bio and Spectrum behind, but Wolverine said they'd return later to see if the two were still alive, on Xavier's insistence. Mystique and Sabretooth had been seen leaving the area, with Mastermind slung over Sabretooth's shoulder. Pyro was staring at a tiny flame on his thumb, watching it dance with a smile too big for his face. 

"Did you miss me?" He whispered. Everybody was freaked out. The X-Men were freaked out by Pyro's love of the dancing flame. Fred and Wanda knew their teammate a bit better. The thing that freaked them out was the fact that he was whispering, something they had never heard before. Also, they were a bit freaked out that he had jammed a syringe into his brain, if not surprised.

* * *

**Two weeks later…**

"Yeah, I brought some flowers. Just put them by his bed," Buzz whispered. Since Xavier had restored his memory, Buzz 'Hunter' Persicelli had made a few important decisions. With the restoration of his memory had come the realization that his immediate family was dead and his extended family did not accept that he was a mutant. Xavier had invited him to the Institute, but Hunter had other plans.

"Can't really say I knew their nice sides," Lance huffed. They were staring at the unconscious forms of Bio and Spectrum. Both had been recovered, alive, and were rushed to a hospital. After minimal skin grafts, they were both recovering nicely, except for the fact that both of them were comatose. The intense heat and the concrete dropping on their skulls and bodies proved to be a potent combination. It was anybody's guess whether they would wake up anytime soon. Xavier had tried entering their minds, but all he had managed to due was undo everything Mastermind had done.

"They're nice guys. I loved to argue with Bio," Buzz maintained. "He loves flowers… well, he loves all plants, because of his powers. Can you believe he only eats meat and dairy? It's so freaky!"

"You don't eat mammals because you can shapeshift into other mammals," Wanda pointed out.

"Yeah, but animals are living creatures."

"So are plants," Pietro pointed out.

"You sound just like him."

"Can we go soon? I'm bored." Pyro was looking around. Oddly enough, he had said that when and if 'Specs' and 'Firewood' woke up, he wouldn't at all mind them joining the Brotherhood.

"Yeah, we can go." With that, the Brotherhood, including their newest member, left the room. Nobody, including the nurses, noticed that the rosebuds Hunter had left by Bio's bed were already in bloom.

**End of Story**

**Thanks for reading! I would like to thank Yellowfur for editing and letting me use Hunter. I'd like to thank trustmeicanwrite, Yellowfur (again), and Fenrir's Daughter for all reviewing multiple times, when nobody else reviews once. Finally, I'd like to thank the reviewers.**

**Hunter is, obviously, part of the Brotherhood now. That means if you send him a question in my Ask The Brotherhood fic, he will answer you. I'm not planning a sequel to this fic at the time, but if I get enough requests...**

**I usually give my Cartoon section OCs voice actors, whose voices you can think of, if that helps in the fic. Hunter is played by Scott Menville (you may know him as Robin in Teen Titans or Lloyd in the game Tales of Symphonia). Bio is played by Alistair Abell, a bit more obscure, he played Future Trunks in Dragon Ball Z, and the History of Trunks movie. He's had other minor anime rolls. Spectrum is played by David Rasner (Steng in Zatch Bell, not much else.) I just realized that this isn't so helpful at the end of a story. Oh, well!**


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